Nut hulling machine



May 29,1956 1 R p T N 2,747,632

NUT HULLING MACHINE Filed D80. 10, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR Xoberi P Barlon.

May 29, 1956 R. P. BARTON NUT HULLING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet Filed Dec. 10, 1953 lNV ENTOR Robert P! .BaJ-Zon.

BY M ml ATTORNEYS NUT HULLING MACHINE Robert P. Barton, Escalon, Calif.

Application December 10, 1953, Serial No. 397,362

3 Claims. (Cl. 146-8) This invention relates to nut hulling machines, and particularly represents improvements over the structure of Patent No. 1,388,026, granted August 16, 1921, to Joseph A. Conner. 1

Such a bullet was primarily designed to hull walnuts, whereas the machine of the instant invention, while admirably adapted to handle walnuts, has been particularly designed to hull macadamia nuts, which have thin but relatively tough fibrous hulls which resist removal from the nuts with the use of the ordinary type of nut hulling machines.

The improved machine includes a rotary plate having radial elements thereon and onto the central portion of which the nuts; to be hulled are fed, and a depending circular brush member to cooperate with the plate and elements thereon to'efiect the hulling of the nuts as generally shown in the aforementioned patent.

The major object of the present invention is to so improve the construction of the radial elements on the rotary plate, and the arrangement and cooperative relationship of the brush relative thereto, as to make the improved machine particularly suited for the hulling of macadamia nuts, and the hulling operations as a whole are speeded up.

Further objects are to mount the circular brush so that it may be readily raised and lowered from the outside and according to the pressure needed to efiect a clean hulling operation, as well as to enable said brush to be easily and quickly removed, if necessary, to remove any bristles of the brush; and to provide for a constant or intermittent feeding of water onto the bristles, if necessary, to prevent sticky hulls from adhering to the bristles, so that the plugging of the brush with sticky matter is eliminated.

A further object of the invention is to provide a practical and reliable nut hulling machine, and one which will be exceedingly effective for thepurpose for which it is designed.

These objects are accomplished by means of such structure and relative arrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specification and claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved hulling machine, shown in connection with a fragmentary portion of a rotary washer to which the hulled nuts feed.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional elevation of the boiling machine, and looking in the same direction as in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional plan substantially on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a plan of the rotary hulling plate, detached.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, the improved machine comprises an upstanding cylindrical shell 1 supported at a suitable distance from the ground by legs 2.

Depending into the shell is a conical hopper 3 terminited SW68 mm nating at its lower end in a cylindrical mouth 4 which discharges into the shell centrally and intermediate the top and bottom thereof.

The hopper extends above and is supported on the rim of the shell, being removably held in place by means of angle brackets 5 on the shell and removable bolts 6 connecting the brackets and hopper.

Some distance below the mouth 4 a circular'hulling plate 7 is disposed in the shell, being spaced from the wall thereof suflicient to receive the thin hulls therebetween, but insuflicient to allow any nuts themselves to drop through.

Fixed on the plate as by rivets R are radiating knife bars 8 having sharpened upstanding and angled cutting edges 9 along their forward or leading side, relative to the direction of rotation of the plate. Said plate 7 is of a conventional type, or as shown for instance in Patent 1,970,540, and is fixed on a central depending shaft 10 connected at its lower end to a motor and gear box unit 11. This unit is supported on a platform structure 12 disposed between and connected to the legs 2 below the shell 1. 1

The plate on its under side carries depending substantially radial sweeper plates 13 which are disposed in sweeping relation to a floor plate 14 mounted in the shell and extending from side to side thereof. This floor plate is arranged to receive the hulls dropping between the rotary hulling plate and the shell; the sweeper plates 13 engaging such hulls as they pile up and discharging them through an outlet chute 15 in the shell.

Mounted in the shell above the hulling plate 7 in cooperating relationship thereto is the brush unit 16. This unit comprises a circular base plate 17 having a central opening 18 through which the hopper mouth projects, and provided throughout its area with closely spaced holes H to receive the depending portions of inverted U-shaped bristle units 19 from above. These bristles are of stiff but resilient metal wire. The bristles as a whole are arranged so that they are of gradually increasing length from the inner to the outer peripheral edges of the brush area, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, so that the bristles are closer to the hulling plate at the outer periphery thereof than at the central portion of the plate.

In order to normally retain the bristle units in place while allowing of ready replacement of any of the same when necessary, a hold-down plate 20 is removably secured to the base plate 17 by bolts 21. The unit 16 is supported from the shell 1 for vertical adjustment by means of upstanding side ears 22 on said unit in which pins in the form of bolts 23, projecting outwardly and radially of the shell, are removably mounted. These pins project through arcuate slots 24 in the shell, said slots having an upward slope toward one end, as shown in Fig. 2.

It will thus be seen that if said brush unit is rotated, it will be raised or lowered somewhat and the spacing of the bristles from the hulling plate will be altered. This adjustment may be effected while the machine is in operation, if desired, by the following means:

Turnably embracing the shell 1 is a band 25 through which the outer ends of the pins 23 project in removable but normally rigidly fixed relation. Fixed on the band is an outwardly projecting block 26 which forms part of the ball and socket connection 27 with a substantially horizontal and tangential screw shaft 28. This shaft is threaded intermediate its ends through a block 29 which projects between ears 3% upstanding from and rigid with a vertical pin 31, and which block is swivelly connected to the ears by transverse trunnions T. This pin is turnably supported in a sleeve 32 fixed on the 3 upper end of one of the shell-supporting legs 2, as clearly shown in Fig. l.

The outer end of the screw shaft is arranged to receive any suitable form of crank handle unit, as indicated at 33 in Fig. 3, so that said shaft may be easily turned.

It will therefore be seen that rotation of the screw shaft will cause lengthwise movement of the same through the fixed and relatively immovable block 29.

This screw shaft movement will impart rotation to the band 25, causing the pins 23 fixed with said hand to move along the sloping slots 24, raising or lowering the brush unit 16 accordingly. The band 25 raises and lowers also; the swivel mounting of the screw shaft as above described compensating for the relative change in position of the hand, both axially and circumferentially, without any binding of the screw shaft at any time.

Should it become necessary to remove the brush unit 16 for repairs or inspection at any time it is only necessary to first lift out the hopper 3, which may be done after removal of the retaining bolts 6. This exposes the bolts 23 for removal without disturbing the exterior band 25 and its adjusting means, and the screen unit may then be lifted out from the shell.

In order to maintain the bristles in a dampened and non-sticky condition, a water pipe 34 projects into the shell between the hopper and the bristle unit and discharges onto the cover plate 20 of the latter.

Said plate is freely perforated, as shown at 35, so that the water from pipe 34 may trickle therethrough and run down the various individual wires which comprises the bristle units. To enable the plate 20 to retain a thin sheet of water over its entire area, so as to provide for an even distribution of water to the bristle mounting area therebelow, said plate 26 is provided with upstanding rim flanges 36, both about its outer periphery and about the central opening 18.

In operation, nuts to be hulled are fed through the hopper and onto the central portion of the hulling plate. As the latter rotates at any suitable speed, such as 100 R. P. M., the nuts are thrown centrifugally out on said plate, and are caught between the bristles and the radial knife edges 9, which, with the cooperation of the bristles, cause the hulls to be stripped from the nuts. Due to the slope or taper of the lower edge of the bristles, not only are the nuts allowed to pass into the space between the bristles and hulling plate from the central portion thereof with greater facility than would otherwise be the case, but nuts of varying sizes can be effectively acted upon without necessarily adjusting the brush unit for every variation in nut size. To prevent possible choking of the nuts in the mouth 4, an eccentrically disposed rod R upstands from the hulling plate and extends through the mouth.

After thenuts are hulled they move from the hulling plate into a discharge spout or chute 37 in the shell 1. This spout delivers the nuts into a rotary washer 38 of suitable form which is mounted as a unit with the huller by means including horizontal side beams 39 projecting from and secured to the legs 2 at the bottom of the shell, as shown in Fig. 1. V

The washer is rotated by a central shaft 40 projecting into the shell and connected in driving relation onto the shaft 10 by gearing 41.

While the hulling machine above described is very elficient for hulling walnuts, its special features make it particularly suited for removing the fibrous hulls from macadamia nuts, with whoserpeculiar hull formation the ordinary type of walnut huller cannot efiiciently cope.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that there has been produced such a device as will substantially fulfill the objects of the invention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferred construction of the device, still in practice such deviations from such detail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, the following is claimed as new and useful, and upon which Letters Patent are desired:

1. In a nut hulling means which comprises a cylindrical vertical shell, a circular hulling plate rotatably mounted in the shell, means connected to the plate to rotate the same, and means to feed nuts onto the central portion of the plate; a circular brush unit in the shell and means mounting the brush unit in the shell for vertical adjustment; said last named means comprising pins mounted on the unit radially thereof the shell having arcuate upwardly sloping slots in the shell through which the pins slidably project, aband turnably embracing the shell and connected to said pins exteriorly of the shell, and means to rotate the band.

2. A machine, as in claim 1, in which said band rotating means comprises a screw shaft disposed substantially tangent to the band, means swivelly connecting the shaft at one end to the band, a block through which the shaft is threaded, and means swivelly mounting the block in connection with the shell.

3. In a nut hullingmachine which comprises a vertical shell, a rotary hulling plate rotatably mounted in the shell and having radial knives thereon, and a hopper above the plate having a depending mouth terminating above the plate centrally thereof; a brush unit in the shell about the month, said unit including bristles depending below the mouth to a termination spaced from the hulling plate; the spacing of the bristles from said plate decreasing gradually from the mouth to adjacent the outer periphery of the plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,342,693 Pape June 8, 1920 1,388,026 Conner Aug. 16, 1921 1,405,610 Maull Feb. 7, 1922 1,574,138 Vaughn Feb. 23, 1926 1,970,540 Benham Aug. 21, 1934 2,167,704 Anderson Aughl, 1939 

